Less or more? What's looks better?
 

I kinda went crazy over the last few weeks and added a LOT more corals and rocks to my tank. Tank is about 8months old. Let me know what u guys think looks better. Simple few rocks and a couple sps?

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1fd6352c.jpg

Or jam pack a bunch more sps and rocks in?

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps49kdb2gp.jpg

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0fivedgu.jpg

Of course doing a make over like this had a bunch of damage due to my clumsiness so lots of frags or sale soon lol. Accidentally broke so many nice sps so I glued them to plugs and waiting to heal up good.

I like the simple and clean look, however I shouldn't be the one to speak... my tank is a mess.

When I have less, I want more!
When I have more, I want less!

2nd picture is what most people (who might not be in the hobby) love to look at. lots of action in there :biggrin:

I like it in the first picture as far as rock formation is concerned. But, if you just practice some good husbandry, those SPS should grow out nicely and fill those gaps. I personally would rather some nice big colonies than a bunch of frags. More room for the coral to grow into is always better. You just have to resist that "fill the gap with rock/frag" stages. I know its tuff... but at this stage, just step back and let it grow!

Less is more!

.. more or less.

I like less rock and more corals, although I wish my sand bed was clean without coral....

I try to go for a more natural low scape now, a couple rock formations with lots of acropora on top filling out to mature colonies. Since I have 3 tanks I have abit more room to set up atleast 1 tank like a display.....

When you dive in Asia you can see lots of boulders with different species of corals on them, sort of like a seafood platter.... I figure this more asthetically pleasing to the eye than my generic fruit stand.

always more more more lol

The temptation of getting more beautiful corals is far too great lol. I think I rly have an addiction problem haha. I notice having more rock n sps is more work now because I have to turkey blast the top parts daily to get out all the waste. But It looks a lot better in my eyes now =). They take so long to grow!!! So when they actually do take up more space ill get rid of some for now I need something to look at haha

What He said

My wife likes the minimalist reef look.

I am an even worse OCD addict than you, so I usually end up with the maximized reef look.

Noticed some diatom patches on my very clean sand bed. Would this be a mini cycle due to extra rocks added? Is this bad should do something about it or just let it be.

I like more and then more rock. My fish also love this. If my sps ever grow to the size of some, I may not like it but for now thats my choice......:D

With your posts it appears as though you are moving too quickly with your tank. It looks great for 8 months. You shouldn't have to be turkey basting your rocks or corals, ever. Best to keep your hands outta your tank. Fiddling can cause crashes. I'd ease off on buying corals and livestock and buy some decent power heads or wave makers. Your tank is lacking flow.

Agreed, I've never had to take a turkey baster to my rock

I've got 4 powerheads in my 75 and a speedwave 2640 return and I'm still finding I want more flow

IMO flow is one of the many keys to success with sps

On the subject of flow, the more rock, I think the more flow you want. I have a medium rock load, 2 x Tunze 6100, 1 x WP60, 2 x Tunze 6085 and a Maxijet for fun :) I'm adding a second WP60 this weekend in the hopes that I don't have to baste the end pieces of rock.

FWIW, I think your before pic is better. Allows more flow and still has enough room to grow out corals.

IMO, the more rock, the more nutrient build up occurs.

Damn that's a lot of of power heads. I guess I should add another hydor 1500 I have laying around. I'm gonna order a WP40 with a variable power supply and just use that only or should I just get a wp25 instead? What size is ur tank?

I have a 180g. For your tank, I'd go with 2 x WP25 to stir things up. Even if you add a hydor, the static flow always greats dead zones where you'll get detritus build up. In your tank, that will likely be on the rock and still need basting. Using a couple of variable speed pumps will reduce (but not eliminate) that happening.
I will occasionally move the pumps around to change the flow, this tends to stir up the dead spots.

I found turning the pumps off for 5 minutes then back on will stir up a lot of detritus as well

Adding a mp10 to my tank on pulse mode ontop of my Korilias did a lot as far as detritus export

My newly cut frags i made during my rearrangements in the tank has gone all pale. Why did this happen? Is it because I left them in a small container with a tiny bit of water for about 4 hours while I was rearranging my tank?

Most likely they got too cold or the moving of rock released too much nutrients in your tank ****ing off the frags

I think it may have been too cold. I remember touching the water n was like oh fuk no good. Any1 have experience with this happenening and how long does it normally take to fully recover? There's 2 frags that fully bleach white cuz I had my frag rack like 4 inches from surface. Will fully bleach ever recover or should I just toss it out?